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Show 430 ON THE Il\-IMEDIATE CAUSES [CH. VII. ~hat the i~creasing love of finery n1ight have as- 81 ted considerably in accon1plishino· this obiect · } · J b J lS ug .1ly probable; but these tastes alone, unaccoin-panted by a better distribution of property, vvould have been quite ineffici'ent. The possessor of 1~un1erous estates, after he had furnished his 111anSI~ n or castle splendidly, and provided hin1sclf \VIth handson1e clothes and handson1e carriages, \Vould not change then1 all every t\vo 1nonths, n1erely bec~use l~e ~ad the po,ver of doing it. Instead of Intlulgtng 1n such useless and trou blcson1e changes, he would be n1ore likely to keep a nu1nber of servants and idle dependants, to take lo,ver rents ':'ith a view of having a greater coml11and over Ius tenants, and per~1aps to sacrifice the produce of a considerable portion of his ]and in or.der to encourage n1ore gan1e, and to indulge, 'v1th 111ore effect and less interruption, in the plea-su. r es . of tl1 e c 11 ase. . rrh·I rty or forty proprietors, \Vlth Incomes ansvvenng to between one thousand and five thousand a year, \Vould create a Inuch 1110re effective den1and for 'vheaten bread o·ood d ' b Ineat, an manufactured products than a sino·lc propri~tor possessing a hundred th~usand a ycm~ . It Is physically possible indeed for a nation, 'VI. th a comparati. ve· 1y small body of very rich pro-pnetors, and a large body of very poor workn1en, to push both the produce of the land and nlanufac~ ures t~ the greatest extent, that the resources and Ingenuity of the country vvould adtnit. Perhaps under s uc1 1 a d.I V ·I S·i on of property the po,vers of production n1ight be rendered the greatest possible; SEC. VII.] OF THE PROGRESS OF 'VEALTH. 431 but, in order to call then1 forth, 've tnust suppose a passion atnong the rich for the consu1nption of IUanufacturcs, and the results of productive labour, much n1orc excessive than has ever been \vitnesf;ed in hun1an society. And the consequence is, that 10 instance has ever been kno\vn of a country \Vh tch has pushed its natnral resources to a great extent, \Vith a stnall proportionate body of persons of property, ho\vever rich and luxurious they n1ight be. Practically it has al \vays been found that the excessive \Vealth of the fe\v is in no respect equivalent, \vitl1 regard to effective demand, to the n1ore moderate \Vealth of the n1any. A large body of n1anufacturcrs and n1crchants can only finc.l a tnarket for their cotnn1odities a1nong a nu1nerou.s class of consutners above the rank of n1erc \Vorktncen and labonrcrs. And experience she,vs us that Inanufacturing 'vealth is at once the consequence of a better distribution of property, and the cause of fu rthcr improven1ents in such distribution, by the increase in the proportion of the n1iddlc classes of society, which the gro\vth of Inanufacturing and n1er·cantilc capital cannot fail to create. But though it be true that the division of landed property, and the oiffusion of 111anufacturin~g· and tnercantile capital to a certain extent, are ()f tbc utmost importance to the increase of " 'ealth; yet it is equally true that, beyond a certain e>,.:tent, they \Vould in1pede the progress of \vealth as lllnch as they had before accelerated it. There is a certain elevation at ,vhich the projectile \vill go the |
